Gift exchange! From the left is Linda Bittner's mom, Judy (sorry for the blur), illustrator/production artist Linda Swaitek, 3-D artist Anne Huddleston, and Linda Bittner, who, with her husband Todd, provided the facility for the event.
Won't try to name all the people at this chow table, but you can see Chris and Daryll. The red and green placemats were Christmas Trivia. What American state was the first to make Christmas an official holiday?
Schmoozing and carrousing.
After-dinner schmoozing.
The theory was, if you leave a big white piece of cardboard and a few markers laying around in a roomful of artists, the board will quickly fill up with some pretty wonderful stuff.
And it did, too, though it began to take on a bit of that service-station bathroom grafitti asthetic.
Here (um, on the left) is the co-author of the previously-mentioned Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner book, Mary Willenbrink. Mark and Mary's new daughter studies Mommy's name tag in case there's a quiz later.
Ryan Ostrander is the staff illustrator for the Cincinnati Post. He's here with his date, Juliet Carels.
Tad Barney, mastermind of www.the-nose.com, took these snaps. Here he's holding the camera the wrong way. Linda tries to tell him but he won't listen.
This bunch wandered off to watch cartoons. Typical. That's illustrator Christina Wald, the back of Daryll Collins, the back of animator David Hartz (whose web cartoons we're watching), and the back of Craig Boldman. Feliz Navidad!
